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The Concilium Plebis (English: Plebeian Council, Plebeian Assembly, People's Assembly or Council of the Plebs) was the principal assembly of the common people of the ancient Roman Republic. It functioned as a legislative/judicial assembly, [ 1 ] through which the plebeians (commoners) could pass legislation (called plebiscites), elect plebeian ...
The Concilium was notable in that it was the first to represent all plebeians, not just those in the city. [35] It was also one of few assemblies of its time to employ group voting, in which each tribe of plebeians agreed on a single vote to cast, similar to the United States Electoral College and some processes of English Parliament. [36]
In ancient Rome, the plebeians or plebs [1] were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words "commoners". Both classes were hereditary.
For example, the "Plebeian Council" was an assembly where Plebeians gathered to elect Plebeian magistrates, pass laws that applied only to Plebeians, and try judicial cases concerning Plebeians. [8] A convention ( conventio ), in contrast, was an unofficial forum for communication, where citizens gathered to debate bills, campaign for office ...
In addition, after the consulship had been opened to the plebeians, the plebs acquired a de facto right to hold both the Roman dictatorship and the Roman censorship [6] since only former consuls could hold either office. 356 BC saw the appointment of the first plebeian dictator, [13] and in 339 BC the plebeians facilitated the passage of a law ...
Plebeians were tied to patricians through the clientela system of patronage that saw plebeians assisting their patrician patrons in war, augmenting their social status, and raising dowries or ransoms. [2] Plebeians were barred from marrying patricians in 450 BC but this law was annulled five years later in 445 BC by a tribune of the plebs.
However, they functioned very much like magistrates of the Roman state. They could convene the concilium plebis, which was entitled to pass legislation affecting the plebeians alone (plebiscita), and beginning in 493 BC to elect the plebeian tribunes and aediles. From the institution of the tribunate, any one of the tribunes of the plebs was ...
These new Plebeian senators, however, could neither vote on an auctoritas patrum ("authority of the fathers" or "authority of the Patrician senators"), nor be elected interrex. [6] In the year 494 BC, the city was at war, [7] but the Plebeian soldiers refused to march against the enemy, and instead seceded to the Aventine Hill. [8]